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'Rey Skywalker' (Upcoming live action motion picture) - general discussion thread

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https://variety.com/2023/film/news/daisy-ridley-rey-star-wars-new-movie-1235572603/

Recent unexpected announcement of a new film set fifteen years after the close of The Rise of Skywalker and the ‘Sequel Trilogy,’ featuring Daisy Ridley reprising her role as the heir to the Jedi and the Skywalker mantle.

From the article:
“Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced at Star Wars Celebration in London on Friday. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) will direct from a script by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”). The film follows the events of “Rise of Skywalker,” and will focus on Rey as she builds a new Jedi Order.”

December 15, 2026.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I am quite intrigued by this film. I really hope they give a clear indication on the layout of the galaxy at this time: the status of the Republic, First Order/Imperial Remnant, and also a clear adversary or opposing force, that kind of thing.

And more content for you Sequel Trilogy fan editors too!

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Weird but okay… I can see it all now.

It’s fifteen years later.
Rey and Finn are now only whispered about as legends.
Meanwhile rumours about the rise of a new dark power have begun to be heard…

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Oh if they couldn’t tell a solid story with THREE WHOLE MOVIES…then why is anyone naive enough to think they’ll get it right the FOURTH time??? C’mon people.

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Oh, so they’ve taken Luke’s story and given it to Rey because his story was shat on? The force is female. I love it.

I wouldn’t trust them to build a campfire with a lighter and a blueprint, let alone build a new movie trilogy of films.

WHAT HAVE I DONE?
The Ancient Lore
Kenobi: A Star Wars Story
Harry Potter Revisited
Game of Thrones Film Edits
Titanic Restructured
… and more.

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Obviously, these gifs fail to adequately convey the fathomless depth of my contempt and loathing for this blasphemous abomination. Still, you catch my drift.

Gods for some, miniature libertarian socialist flags for others.

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I think the problem is Star Wars being a megacorp IP now, that has to make it look like it is doing well as a company. Not building off the ST is like Apple scrapping a product line because something in that line was disliked. It never looks good (although companies do scrap things all the time so maybe my analogy sucks) to admit that you poured money into something the public didn’t ultimately embrace.

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Yeah that is true, they will never actually admit failure in the same way they would admit the OOT exists in the vault. Also it feels like in the same way they wanted film releases to accelerate (for a while) they want the idea that older movies are becoming appreciated to accelerate too. Like the board said everyone likes the prequels now, given time everyone will like all our products, so why not just push it forward now.

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This movie signifies to me, that this company hasn’t learned a thing. Continuing with anything sequel’s related is going to be the nail in the coffin for this franchise. These movies won’t be beloved over time like the prequels became, I can guarantee that. The prequels may have had bad CGI and dialogue, but it still had heart and plot. The sequels have ZERO heart and weren’t made with any sort of passion. They themselves have admitted to winging the whole trilogy.

They are going to attempt to fix their abomination of a trilogy with the Mandoverse, like they think the Clone Wars did for the prequels. But the Clone Wars didn’t FIX the prequels, it just added more layers. You can’t fix how they robbed the original trilogy cast of everything they had in the sequels. No show can fix that damage. Sorry, it isn’t going to happen. And I hope this thing completely bombs so they have to finally either sell this franchise off to somebody who actually cares about it.

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If it really happens that’d be one thing, but if it’s a success that’s something else. Adding more layers to
‘somehow Palpatine returned’ is the whole end game of the current TV glut after all. People should be annoyed but Daisy walked out on stage and everyone clapped like a bunch of seals so…

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Mocata said:

If it really happens that’d be one thing, but if it’s a success that’s something else. Adding more layers to
‘somehow Palpatine returned’ is the whole end game of the current TV glut after all. People should be annoyed but Daisy walked out on stage and everyone clapped like a bunch of seals so…

It baffles me honestly. I have to imagine most of those people aren’t EU fans whatsoever. Since just the idea of them robbing Luke of everything he worked for just to hand it to their boring as a blank of wood character known as Rey, is such a disgrace to everything the OT built and the EU expanded on.

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WitchDR said:

Mocata said:

If it really happens that’d be one thing, but if it’s a success that’s something else. Adding more layers to
‘somehow Palpatine returned’ is the whole end game of the current TV glut after all. People should be annoyed but Daisy walked out on stage and everyone clapped like a bunch of seals so…

It baffles me honestly. I have to imagine most of those people aren’t EU fans whatsoever. Since just the idea of them robbing Luke of everything he worked for just to hand it to their boring as a blank of wood character known as Rey, is such a disgrace to everything the OT built and the EU expanded on.

Sadly, I think you are right. Many wouldn’t even know about, or bother with the EU. Or even know much of the Sequel era outlines and ideas has actually been lifted from the EU.

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It is truly depressing…

To me the Post-OT novels are the best era of Star Wars. Yeah there are a handful of duds, but even the stuff before the more exciting Thrawn trilogy and beyond is great.

People are really missing out on stuff like Truce at Bakura, Courtship of Priness Leia, and Tatoonie Ghost. All far more exciting than anything Disney has ever put out.

Every idea that Disney has stolen from the EU was done far better in the EU.

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Jesus, you people are cynical. It’s starting to be hard to tell the difference between this site and Red Letter Media’s comments section.

Personally, I think this movie has a ton of potential. Most people outside of hardcore fandom were okay with at least some parts of the sequels, it’s not an “unsalvageable” aspect of the franchise. If they can create a nice, satisfying epilogue story that makes it so people’s last memory of the sequel era isn’t TROS, I think it would do a lot to heal the divide that those movies inflicted on the fandom. That’s a big ask, though.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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I think cynicism is allowed when there’s already been THREE whole movie attempts to make Rey a good character or not. Why would you not be cynical with them forcing a fourth attempt?

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In my mind this movie only works if Mark Hamill is in it. If Rey looks up to Luke enough to call herself “Rey Skywalker”… show us that relationship!

Have Rey’s new Jedi Order established on Anch-To, and since the location is stong with the force or some other bs reason, also give me force ghost Luke training Jedi too and having fun teaching with Rey and guiding the students.

It can even be a smaller role that book ends the movie. There’s a threat, Luke helps train students more and gives advice, Rey leaves with students and uses Luke’s guidance. Aka, don’t be afraid to use Luke and still make him a participant in rebuilding the Order!

For example… see “Professor Binns” in the Harry Potter novels, but not as boring.

The Skywalker Saga:
I · II · III · IV · V · VI · VII · VIII · IX
This is the way.

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Fan_edit_fan said:

I think cynicism is allowed when there’s already been THREE whole movie attempts to make Rey a good character or not. Why would you not be cynical with them forcing a fourth attempt?

But what if you think Rey was already a good character? I certainly did, at least until the whole “you are a Palpatine” fiasco. But I feel like a major goal of this movie is to rationalize and streamline some of the messiness of TROS, bringing the sequels’ reception back to the mostly-positive outlook pre-2019.

Remember, both TFA and TLJ had a more than 90% positive critical reception, and I feel like the audience score would look the same way if sequel hate wasn’t weaponized during the Trump-era culture wars. People liked the sequels before TROS, Disney just needs to figure out how to make people like them again.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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StarkillerAG said:

But what if you think Rey was already a good character? I certainly did, at least until the whole “you are a Palpatine” fiasco. But I feel like a major goal of this movie is to rationalize and streamline some of the messiness of TROS, bringing the sequels’ reception back to the mostly-positive outlook pre-2019.

Remember, both TFA and TLJ had a more than 90% positive critical reception, and I feel like the audience score would look the same way if sequel hate wasn’t weaponized during the Trump-era culture wars. People liked the sequels before TROS, Disney just needs to figure out how to make people like them again.

For one I wouldn’t take payed critics opinions seriously and second - this “Trump-era” culture war you speak of, I don’t think has anything to do with it. What happened is TLJ came out an completely destroyed Luke Skywalker. And people were pissed. You can try to blame outrage culture channels on Youtube for this. But the whole reason they ever rose to stardom in the first place is BECAUSE people were going to these sites to see if people felt the same way they did after leaving the theater from TLJ.

The only reason TFA was so positive is because it was a new mainline Star Wars movie after 15 years of none. And once that high wore off and TLJ came out, people looked at it far more critically. And it especially didn’t help that the movie itself was horrible.

I’d love if this movie was great, but the damage is already done. I’d love to be excited for Star Wars again, but between the OT characters treatment and their bland replacements, it’s too late. Hey if you love these movies and Rey in general that’s cool. I’m happy you and some people found enjoyment out of them. But can we please stop equating “sequel hate” to some kind of “right wing” movement? It’s honestly tiresome… Peoples politics have absolutely nothing to do with how people felt about these movies.

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Having a Force ghost as a major character other than gently, occasionally nudging things seems weird to me. Spirits of the dead in stories usually are more inspiration than active agents, right?

But even though I’ve not been shy about my disappointment with TROS, or maybe because of that, I’ll be excited to see where things go. I wouldn’t say I’m excited yet, but I’m sure I will be. It’s Star Wars Episode X, in all but name, don’t you wanna see what happens next? You worried it’ll sully the ST’s good name or something? (Why not do it, in other words.)

My stance on revising fan edits.

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It’s hard for me to get excited about the Rey movie when her entire journey consists of overcoming any and every challenge life throws at her without breaking a sweat and never experiencing defeat. She’s like your video game character on God mode.

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WitchDR said:

But can we please stop equating “sequel hate” to some kind of “right wing” movement? It’s honestly tiresome… Peoples politics have absolutely nothing to do with how people felt about these movies.

It is tiresome. I’m no mind-reader, but it’s a safe bet I’m among the most left-wing of the posters on this site, if not the most left-wing, and I’ve never liked TFA or the 60-odd minutes of TLJ I watched.

Reactionary troglodytes are the most outspoken critics of these movies – and don’t doubt for a second that that fact gets under my skin every, single, time I think about it – but it’s not fair to lump every dissenting voice in with their camp.

Gods for some, miniature libertarian socialist flags for others.

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Well, unless the Filoni-verse can pull off a miracle and make me care about the ST setup, this movie will be a hard pass, possibly an unpleasant pass. Still trying to ignore and forget about TROS completely, but we’ll see.

I will say it is indeed painful to see Rey take on this mantle of “first of the new” that was fully meant for Luke - regardless of what is text or isn’t, Luke wins in ROTJ by defying his elders, and they all look proudly back to him at the end, which symbolizes how right he was to go against their wishes. It’s been the major understanding of the franchise for decades - that Luke would be the first of the new, his masters the last of the old. It makes sense, the Empire that they were unable to stop was defeated by Luke, the status quo completely changed, everything changed. Luke has a clear path and a blank page to make a better Jedi Order than ever before. Even Timothy Zahn saw this way when writing Thrawn, and I don’t think anybody objected, because I’m pretty sure that’s how everyone interpreted Return of the Jedi.

Sadly for some inexplicable reason the sequels took that away from him, and while seeing Rey at the end of TROS explicitly on this same exact path felt really bad, actually getting, to her, what we should’ve gotten for post-ROTJ Luke is… hard to stomach. Ugh.

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Omni said:

Well, unless the Filoni-verse can pull off a miracle and make me care about the ST setup, this movie will be a hard pass, possibly an unpleasant pass. Still trying to ignore and forget about TROS completely, but we’ll see.

I will say it is indeed painful to see Rey take on this mantle of “first of the new” that was fully meant for Luke - regardless of what is text or isn’t, Luke wins in ROTJ by defying his elders, and they all look proudly back to him at the end, which symbolizes how right he was to go against their wishes. It’s been the major understanding of the franchise for decades - that Luke would be the first of the new, his masters the last of the old. It makes sense, the Empire that they were unable to stop was defeated by Luke, the status quo completely changed, everything changed. Luke has a clear path and a blank page to make a better Jedi Order than ever before. Even Timothy Zahn saw this way when writing Thrawn, and I don’t think anybody objected, because I’m pretty sure that’s how everyone interpreted Return of the Jedi.

Sadly for some inexplicable reason the sequels took that away from him, and while seeing Rey at the end of TROS explicitly on this same exact path felt really bad, actually getting, to her, what we should’ve gotten for post-ROTJ Luke is… hard to stomach. Ugh.

Yeah.

I think a lot of us who were loners growing up saw ourselves in Luke. We wanted for him what we wanted most for ourselves: happiness, family, love, success. The Expanded Universe, for all its faults, delivered on this. We never wanted him sacrificed in a cynical zero-sum game.

Gods for some, miniature libertarian socialist flags for others.

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So here’s the thing: yes, this sucks and seems like an absolutely terrible decision. However, I really wonder how much of an information bubble Star Wars fans exist in. There are common “truisms” that seem to be generally accepted as facts within the “fan community” (whatever that means). Facts like (1) the Sequels suck, or (2) Rise of Skywalker is particularly ridiculous, or (3) Andor is amazing, etc. But are these opinions reflected in the general public? I mean I think the average movie-going consumer probably doesn’t give any of this much thought, and therefore for them the Sequel Trilogy was a fun little adventure. And I imagine most of the box office revenue comes from average consumers. So from Disney’s perspective this might not seem like such a bad idea. Granted, up until now, it really seemed like Disney was intentionally steering clear of anything related to the Sequels.

It would be nice to have actual polling data about this stuff. There are arguments to be made using proxies like toy sales and all that, but all of that is really speculative because it doesn’t control for other variables. (Like we could say poor toy sales for Sequel Trilogy products indicates general dislike of these films, but it could also just mean that the latest generation of children is less inclined to play with toys in general because they have iPads or whatever.)

But it’s definitely sad to me that we’ll never get a live action portrayal of Luke’s continuing adventures post-ROTJ and his new Jedi Order. Rey would be a great character if she was written to be trained by Luke and perhaps his star pupil. But they wrote her such that she doesn’t really learn anything from Luke, and she sort of just cannibalizes his story. But really, this is kind of to be expected because it’s obvious that The Force Awakens was never actually a Sequel. It was written as a “reboot”. Nothing in that film was written as a progression of previous events. Previous events were treated mostly as an inconvenience. The New Republic and Luke’s Jedi Order were grudgingly mentioned and then promptly blown up so we could move on to rebooted Rebels vs. Empire action. It’s kind of crazy that after waiting 30 years for a follow up to ROTJ, they decided to go with “A New Hope but with updated special effects” instead of a story that followed naturally as a progression of previous events, like an actual Sequel is supposed to do and like the EU actually did. So the fact that Rey simply repeats Luke’s story while sort of just deleting his prior accomplishments implied from the Original Trilogy follows naturally from the fact that Episode 7 was a reboot instead of a proper Sequel.

But yeah, I also find this whole thing very tragic.

What’s funny is this “pseudo-Sequel that’s really a reboot” thing seems very modern due to J.J. Abrams, since he did the same thing with Star Trek in 2009. However, this is actually a much older phenomenon and was very often the “default” way to write a Sequel. Consider that, for example, Ghostbusters 2 basically just deletes all the accomplishments of the first movie, and then just retells the same story. (And with the same characters no less.) This used to happen all the time with sequels. It was just obviously not the right way to continue with Star Wars, which was already a 6 episode story where each episode progressed from the events of the previous one.

Then again, who knows? Maybe this movie will just get canceled like half of Disney’s other announced projects.